World Rowing Championships

The first event was held in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1962.[1][2] The event then was held every four years until 1974, when it became an annual competition. Also in 1974, Men's lightweight and Women's open weight events were added to the championships.

Initially, Men's events were 2000 metres long and Women's events 1000 metres. At the 1984 World Championships in Montreal, Canada, Women's lightweight demonstration events were raced over a 2000-metre course for the first time. In 1985, Women's lightweight events were officially added to the schedule and all Men's and Women's events were contested over a 2000-metre course.

Since 1996, during (Summer) Olympic years, the World Rowing Junior Championships are held at the same time.

In 2002 adaptive rowing events were introduced for the following classes of disability: LTA (legs, trunk and arms), TA (trunk, arms), and A (arms-only). In 2009 the A category was replaced by AS (arms and shoulders), and an ID (intellectually disabled) category was added (but then removed after the 2011 Championships). From 2017 the designations AS, TA, and LTA have been changed to PR1, PR2, and PR3.[3]

Rowing takes place in 21 different boat classes, apart from during Olympic years when only non-Olympic boat classes race. National teams generally take less interest in the non-Olympic events, as the Olympic events are considered the "premier" events.

The table below shows the boat classes, "O" indicates the boat races at both the Olympics and World Championships. "WC" indicates this is only a World Championship event. After 2007, the coxed fours (4+) no longer runs as a world championship event. Similarly after 2011 the women's coxless four was no longer included, but it was reintroduced in 2013. Lightweight men's eight was removed after 2015.

As a result of the IOC's aim for gender parity, it has been agreed that for 2020 onwards the lightweight men's coxless four will be removed from the Olympics and replaced by women's coxless four.[4]

At the 2017 FISA Ordinary Congress there were further revisions, removing M2+ and LM4- from the World Championships, and reinstating LW2-.[5]

World Rowing Championships have been held since 1962, first every four years and since 1974 annually. Due to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, the World Rowing Federation cancelled all international events for 2020 on 9 April 2020, some time after the 2020 Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics had been postponed by one year. This included the 2020 World Rowing Championships regatta scheduled for Bled in Slovenia.[6] On 11 July 2021, the World Rowing Federation announced that it had accepted the request by the Shanghai Organising Committee to also cancel the October 2021 World Rowing Championships that were to be held in Shanghai, China.[7] On 14 July, after having received feedback from member organisations about the importance of international competitions, the World Rowing Federation confirmed that the cancellation of the 2021 championships is unavoidable.[8]

Edition	Year	Host city	Host country	R events	PR events
1	1962	Lucerne	Switzerland	7	-
2	1966	Bled	Yugoslavia	7	-
3	1970	St. Catharines	Canada	7	-
4	1974	Lucerne	Switzerland	17	-
5	1975	Nottingham	Great Britain	17	-
6	1976	Villach	Austria	3	-
7	1977	Amsterdam	Netherlands	17	-
8	1978	Copenhagen	Denmark	4	-
8	1978	Cambridge	New Zealand	14	-
9	1979	Bled	Yugoslavia	18	-
10	1980	Heindonk	Belgium	4	-
11	1981	Oberschleißheim	West Germany	18	-
12	1982	Lucerne	Switzerland	18	-
13	1983	Duisburg	West Germany	18	-
14	1984	Montreal	Canada	8	-
15	1985	Heindonk	Belgium	21	-
16	1986	Nottingham	Great Britain	21	-
17	1987	Copenhagen	Denmark	21	-
18	1988	Milan	Italy	7	-
19	1989	Bled	Yugoslavia	22	-
20	1990	Tasmania	Australia	22	-
21	1991	Vienna	Austria	22	-
22	1992	Montreal	Canada	8	-
23	1993	Račice	Czech Republic	23	-
24	1994	Indianapolis	United States	23	-
25	1995	Tampere	Finland	24	-
26	1996	Motherwell	Great Britain	10	-
27	1997	Aiguebelette-le-Lac	France	24	-
28	1998	Cologne	Germany	24	-
29	1999	St. Catharines	Canada	24	-
30	2000	Zagreb	Croatia	10	-
31	2001	Lucerne	Switzerland	24	-
32	2002	Seville	Spain	24	2
33	2003	Milan	Italy	24	4
34	2004	Banyoles	Spain	9	3
35	2005	Kaizu	Japan	23	3
36	2006	Dorney	Great Britain	23	4
37	2007	Oberschleißheim	Germany	23	4
38	2008	Ottensheim	Austria	8	-
39	2009	Poznań	Poland	22	5
40	2010	Cambridge	New Zealand	22	5
41	2011	Bled	Slovenia	22	5
42	2012	Plovdiv	Bulgaria	7	-
43	2013	Chungju	South Korea	22	5
44	2014	Amsterdam	Netherlands	22	5
45	2015	Aiguebelette-le-Lac	France	22	4
46	2016	Rotterdam	Netherlands	7	1
47	2017	Sarasota	United States	21	5
48	2018	Plovdiv	Bulgaria	20	9
49	2019	Ottensheim	Austria	20	9
50	2022	Račice	Czech Republic	20	9
51	2023	Belgrade	Serbia	19	8
52	2024	St. Catharines	Canada
53	2025	Shanghai	China
54	2026	Amsterdam	Netherlands

• 2020 in Bled,  Slovenia was cancelled.
• 2021 in Shanghai,  China was cancelled.
• R = Rowing / PR = Para Rowing

Source:[9]

Rowing (1962–2023) Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1  East Germany 94 45 25 164 2  Italy 93 72 54 219 3  Germany 84 75 73 232 4  Great Britain 77 74 64 215 5  United States 65 78 91 234 6  New Zealand 56 36 29 121 7  Australia 47 49 48 144 8  Romania 40 44 46 130 9  Soviet Union 35 44 29 108 10  Denmark 34 27 33 94 11  France 32 45 28 105 12  Canada 28 34 45 107 13  West Germany 24 23 25 72 14  Netherlands 20 48 44 112 15   Switzerland 17 16 15 48 16  China 17 10 23 50 17  Ireland 16 8 11 35 18  Norway 15 7 12 34 19  Poland 13 22 17 52 20  Belarus 11 6 10 27 21  Bulgaria 9 12 14 35 22  Austria 8 6 10 24 23  Czech Republic 7 15 12 34 24  Greece 7 11 10 28 25  Croatia 7 6 5 18 26  Spain 6 9 16 31 27  Ukraine 5 6 10 21 28  Hungary 4 6 6 16 29  Slovenia 4 5 6 15 30  Finland 3 4 4 11 31  Lithuania 3 3 2 8 32  Belgium 2 7 8 17 33  Sweden 2 4 6 12 34  South Africa 2 2 4 8 35  Russia 1 8 9 18 36  Chile 1 3 1 5 37  Japan 1 2 1 4 38  Argentina 1 1 5 7 39  Brazil 1 1 2 4 40  Serbia and Montenegro 1 1 1 3 41  Czechoslovakia 0 11 11 22 42  Cuba 0 2 1 3 43  Estonia 0 1 6 7 44  Serbia 0 1 5 6 45  Yugoslavia 0 1 4 5 46  Slovakia 0 1 2 3 47  Mexico 0 1 0 1 48  Turkey 0 0 2 2 49  Moldova 0 0 1 1  Portugal 0 0 1 1  Zimbabwe 0 0 1 1 Totals (51 entries) 893 893 888 2674

Pararowing (2002–2023) Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1  Great Britain 23 8 3 34 2  Australia 16 8 6 30 3  Ukraine 12 6 8 26 4  United States 7 10 7 24 5  Netherlands 6 6 1 13 6  Norway 6 1 1 8 7  France 5 11 10 26 8  Brazil 4 3 2 9 9  Canada 3 3 2 8 10  Hong Kong 3 0 0 3 11  Russia 2 2 7 11 12  Germany 1 4 8 13 13  Israel 1 3 3 7 14  China 1 1 0 2 15  Ireland 1 0 1 2 16  Italy 0 12 6 18 17  Poland 0 3 7 10 18  Austria 0 3 0 3 19  Belarus 0 1 2 3  Portugal 0 1 2 3 21  Spain 0 1 0 1 22  Greece 0 0 1 1  New Zealand 0 0 1 1  South Africa 0 0 1 1 Totals (24 entries) 91 87 79 257

• Official website of the World Rowing